Friday, April 30, 2010

Drawing Music :: Laetitia Sonami

My close friend and composer invited me to the Issue Project Room today, to catch the tail end of the Music & Technology Month. All I knew was that there will be a lady by the name of Laetitia Sonami with a midi-wired glove as her instrument. So futuristic, I thought...The black glove was covered in thin colorful wires, and with each hand gesture, it triggered different sound samples.

I was mesmerized by Laetitia's performance. She did two pieces: a musical one and a narrative. The seminal research on such "data gloves" was done in 1980s. Laetitia Sonami has been composing, performing music and doing sound installation art with her glove for a few decades now. Describing the music she performed isn't easy with words. It was like a dance of hands and fingers; a sign-language that produced sounds of birds, water, streets, voices, layers and layers of audio clips; a beautiful sound collage. Here's a few drawings that might do a better job of describing.

I am going to look for more information on Laetitia and her glove-it's just so interesting to me...

s e a r c h

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"I believe that in theindeterminacy of drawing,the contingent way thatimages arrive in the work,lies some kind of modelof how we live our lives.The activity of drawingis a way of trying tounderstand who we areand how we operatein the world. "~William Kentridge